"אבא או אמא?"
Translation:Dad or mom?
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Well, Hebrew doesn't write vowels most of the time, they're implied. Alef (א) is actually the sound of silence, followed by a vowel. For right now, you can just guess A and be right a lot of the time, but you'll get used to reading after a while. If it comes before a waw (vav, ו) it's O or U, like in או.
Well, it's not the sound of silence, it is a glottal stop. But since Europeans won't get it anyways, you're kinda right.
The vowel is called segol. This is an example but with less space between. It goes under the letters. . . .
1227
I think you mean Hirik/chirik אִ which makes an "i/ee" sound instead of segol is אֶ which makes an "eh" sound like in "bet". אִמָּא
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Or the kid's trying to decide which one to ask permission for something they might say no to. ;)
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או is pronounced like o (with a shorter sound though like in the word old), but it is a word that means or (as in either dad or mom)
I was struggling to understand why "או" is pronounced "o". It says in the tips and notes that "א - Aleph" is silent and that "ו - Vav" is pronounced "v". However, I found this useful video which that "ו" can be pronounced "v", "o", and "u", which helps explain why it's pronounced "o".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJUMyHR0zN4 I hope that helps and recommend giving some of the videos a watch.
Is there some sort of chart showing pronunciation? Right now, it makes no sense, and Duoling decided to make this a course that uses hearts...
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I'm under the impression that all courses on a particular app. use the heart system. If you use your computer, or the computer function of your cell phone, you won't have to deal with the heart system. If you go into the "Tips" section, which one of the apps does not have, you will see charts explaining the pronunciation of the letters.
Why does Duo show [masc.] and [fem.] blocks if you can't actually use them...
The pronunciation of "או" being pronounced "o"? Does that have to do with when the language was being revived and it took some Indo-European influence? Like "o" be or in Spanish also?
The natural way to spell "o" as a word is "או", so I'm not sure what you find strange here.
Having said that, in Arabic this word is pronounced with the diphthong a-u (as in English "how"). To take a wild guess (I'm not a linguist), in very ancient Hebrew or proto-semitic it was this diphthong, and then Hebrew (or some ancestor of it) contracted it to sound "o" as happens often in many languages (most "au"s in English, for example). That must have happened before the nikkud was invented in the 11th century.
Why is "and" separate in this case? "אבא או אמא" instead of "אבא ואמא"?
It is diffrent cases: אבא ואמא - dad and mom אבא או אמא? - dad or mom או = or ו = and
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In "אבא או אמא" the middle word (או) is a word that means or. In "אמא ואבא" the first letter of the second word is actually the word and. In Hebrew we use and just with one letter (ו) that is added to the word at the beginning of it